Michelle Nightingale, an aptly named actor and singer, plays Mary Anning a Victorian  palaeontologist. Mary lived in Lyme Regis, now known as part of the Jurassic Coast, and although from a poor family her parents urged her to read widely and educate herself. Through original songs, delightfully sung by Nightingale, we learn about Mary's passion for fossil hunting.

Writer and director Michael Mills is well known in Adelaide as his alter-ego Professor Flint, who uses his storytelling prowess, based on scientific themes, to bring science and history to the attention of as many people as possible.

In Nightingale's stellar performance we see Mary towards the end of her life as she looks back, recounting her discoveries and the difficulties she encountered in receiving due credit for her scholarly work. The songs Mary Anning and I am a Palaeontologist neatly sum up how Mary fought being sidelined by the scientific establishment, as does the imagined argument between Mary and 'The Man in the Hat'.

Mary is wonderfully portrayed in this scene, becoming increasingly angry and agitated, as she imagines gate crashing a meeting of the London Geological Society. Nightingale's emotion-packed representation shows us how much Mary was angered by not being accepted as a fellow scientist by the Establishment.

Mills appears as the typical Victorian male scientist, aka 'The Man in the Hat'. He repeats Victorian stereotypes and prejudices by deriding Mary's lack of education, suggesting she is a mere collector of fossils and doesn't understand them. He is unmoved by her reminder that many eminent scientists visit Lyme Regis to consult her. The major issue is, of course, not Mary's want of education, but rather the unresolvable fact that Mary is a woman.

The opening night audience was also treated to a panel discussion and Q&A. It featured four women scientists who gave their reactions to the production and spoke about what/who inspired them in their careers. All four are SA based - Dr Tatiana Soares da Costa, Group Leaders and Future Making Fellow, working on weed eradication at Waite Research Institute; Dr Alice Gorman, a space archeologist from Flinders University; Dr Liz Reed, a vertebrate paleontologist digging in caves in the SE of the state; and Tiah Bampton, a PhD candidate in paleontology, being supervised by Dr Reed at the University of Adelaide.